


Toy

by joeyrz



Category: Firefly
Genre: Gen, Humor
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2008-01-21
Updated: 2008-01-21
Packaged: 2017-10-17 07:53:12
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 432
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/174579
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/joeyrz/pseuds/joeyrz
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A new, old toy for Simon.  And get your mind out of the gutters, ladies and gents.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Toy

River had picked it up on their last land fall, amazingly still in good condition, though not in it's original package. But then again, if she had managed to find one in mint condition, Simon would have never dared to open it, much less play with it. It reminded him of being five years old, his great grandfather - an old man whose grandparents had actually lived in Earth That Was - coming to their home for the Christmas celebrations and bringing him this toy.

As always, thoughts of home and family threatened to depress Simon, but the excitement over the eerily complicated toy overshadowed that this time.

He tolerated the jibes and jokes from the crew. He had actually something else besides cleaning the infirmary to keep him occupied now.

It was about a week after River had very quietly left it next to him on the dinning table, that he finally got frustrated with it. One last, ineffective twist, and he very politely, and very firmly, set it on the coffee table on the lounge.

"I...uh. I'll try again later," Simon said defensively as the crew, almost as a whole, laughed at him.

"Don't know what the big deal is," Jayne said as he walked past. He grabbed the colorful cube in his hands, turning it around to examine it. "All's ya gotta do is put them in order, ain't it?"

"Yes, well. It's rather more complicated than that," Simon began, as he saw Jayne start to twist the sides of the cube around. "Just randomly moving the parts, isn't going to work. There's a science to it. Math algorithms. Special moves that one needs to figure out before trying to accomplish it. I've already determined that there's an order in which it must be resolved, it's just a matter of time until I'll have done it. The time I've invested in it, will be paid in full when it's finally done."

Simon was about to continue talking when he noticed everyone was looking at Jayne, not at him. He turned around just in time to see Jayne give a couple of more twists of the wrist, then hold up the Rubik's Cube in all of its color coordinated glory, each side a full panel of red, white, blue, orange, yellow and green.

"That was easy, doc. Do ya think they'd be made in 4 by 4 or more?" Jayne asked, tossing the Rubik's Cube over his shoulder at Simon, walking away to investigate on the ship's computer.

Simon didn't hear the crew's stunned silence erupt into hysterical laughter.

the end


End file.
